Diabetic retinopathy is a disease characterized by damages to retina caused by complications of diabetes. The retina is a nerve layer that lines the back of the human eye. It is the part of the eye that captures the visual images and sends the images to the brain.
Diabetic retinopathy can be a serious condition and can often lead to poor vision or even blindness if not treated timely. Diabetic retinopathy is typically caused by changes in retinal blood vessels, which are induced by high blood sugar levels in a diabetic patient. These changes lead to improper formation of the blood-retinal barrier and make the retinal blood vessels become weak and more permeable.
A problem with diagnosing diabetic retinopathy is that it typically begins at the periphery of the retina, which is difficult to see, and then works its way towards the center of the retina, at which point it can be too late to treat and blindness can set in. Physicians often use microscope-like devices with or without an attached camera that have a fixed field of view (typically between 20-50 degrees) to try to diagnose diabetic retinopathy using the visible light spectrum. However, such examination sometimes does not reveal signs of retinopathy present at the periphery of the retina because of the limited field of view of these cameras. Additionally, they typically use cameras, e.g. CCD cameras that are very bulky and cumbersome to use. Thus, in order to see the periphery of the retina, it is desirable to increase the field of view when diagnosing retinopathy, while still utilizing a fairly simple device. It is also desirable to expand the number of spectrums and wavelengths to identify aspects of eye anatomy and pathology not found in the visible spectrum and associated wavelengths currently being employed.
There are few newer technologies that have been developed for more accurately diagnosing diabetic retinopathy. One such technology is a coherence tomography technology, as disclosed, for example, in US 2012/0127427 by Guo et al. This is an imaging technology similar to regular ultrasound. It utilizes an optical beam that is directed at eye tissue and a small portion of light that reflects from sub-surface structures is collected to re-create a 3D image of the retina. While this technique has many advantages, the equipment is very complex and expensive, making it not easily accessible to all patients and clinics. Further, a patient's pupil needs to be dilated during the procedure, which makes it more uncomfortable for the patient.
Another newer type of an imaging technique is a confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscope, which creates an image of the retina with a high degree of spatial sensitivity. Again, while this technique has many advantages, the required equipment is typically extremely cumbersome and expensive.
Yet another type of a retina imaging device is described in WO 2012/088424 by Busuioc et al. The device includes a camera having a body and at least one optical sensor provided on the body and configured to receive light directly from a lens of an eye. The optical sensor can be positioned closer or further away from the eye to focus the camera. While this device is rather simple and inexpensive, it still suffers from a number of disadvantages. For example, because the camera remains in the same position relative the surface of the eye, still only a limited angle of view of the eye anatomy can be captured. Additionally, because the camera does not utilize a lens, the quality of image of the eye anatomy obtained by the camera is fairly low.
Therefore, while various newer optical imaging techniques provide improved imaging capabilities, there is still a need for a simpler and more affordable device and method that allows for a simplified but accurate imaging of a person's retina to detect symptoms of diabetic retinopathy in addition to other eye diseases.
Additionally, it is possible that diseases of the body can be detected by finding trace elements of their existence by visualizing the anatomy of the eye. Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by an increase of tiny inclusions in the nerve tissue, called plaques. These plaques are found between the dying cells in the brain from the build-up of a protein called beta-amyloid. Beta amyloid protein has been found to aggregate in the lens of the eye. Accordingly, the ability to detect and measure beta amyloid aggregates in the eye creates an opportunity to detect and diagnose the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Conformational diseases, which include more than 40 disorders, are typically caused by the accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins. Improper protein folding or a so-called misfolding, together with accrual of unfolded proteins, leads to the formation of disordered (amorphous) or ordered (amyloid fibril) aggregates. Characteristic late or episodic onset of the conformational diseases is caused by the gradual accumulation of protein aggregates and the acceleration of their formation by stress. The best studied conformational diseases are neurodegenerative diseases and amyloidosis, which are accompanied by the deposition of specific aggregation-prone proteins or protein fragments and formation of insoluble fibrils. Amyloidogenic protein accumulation often occurs in the brain tissues. For example, Alzheimer's disease is associated with deposition of amyloid-beta and Tau, scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy is associated with accumulation of prion protein, and Parkinson's disease is associated with deposition of alpha-synuclein. The accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins, which leads to pathology, also takes place in a variety of other organs and tissues, including different parts of the eye. Some of the best studied ocular conformational diseases include cataract in the lens and retinitis pigmentosa in the retina. However, deposition and accumulation of unfolded or misfolded proteins also occurs in other parts of the eye causing various disorders. Ocular manifestation of systemic amyloidosis can also cause deposition of amyloidogenic proteins in different ocular tissues.
Therefore, it is also an objective of this invention to create an imaging device that utilizes one or more scanning cameras with one or more spectrums combined with one or more wavelengths to visualize naturally unfolded and misfolded proteins in eye tissues, as well as other biological material, and to detect their structures and molecular mechanisms underlying their involvement in diseases.